Big Companies Buying Smaller Websites?

Ive been wondering (at the back of my mind) for a while, if there will be a lot of buying+selling of websites going on in the future. In a similar way that c ompanies offline buy other (smaller) companies...

Is this happening on the web already? Is there a trend? I've repeatedly been told "Not really".

However, on another (really small) forum I hang out at, out of 5 people 2 have been contacted to sell one of their websites before (one of them runs an SEO agency, another one has a popular site on his hobby).

Are the big companies out there doing this already?

thanks!

PS: Im asking as Im wondering if this will be a niche in the internet marketing/E-commerce job market...

Ive been wondering (at the back of my mind) for a while, if there will be a lot of buying+selling of websites going on in the future. In a similar way that c ompanies offline buy other (smaller) companies...

Is this happening on the web already? Is there a trend? I've repeatedly been told "Not really".

There are certain companies that buy up affiliates in their competitive spaces.

There are some companies that buy up productive commercial sites in order to expand their reach and broaden their audience profiles.

This process has been going on for years and, from my perspective, is no less intense today than it was five years ago.

How much does it happen? I don't know, but I have heard about Website acquisitions every year for as long as I can remember.

Publicly traded companies are now scooping up Websites with proven commercial value...that has been going on for several years, at the very least. I personally know or have met some of the people involved in these transactions. The Websites typically sell for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, so keep in mind that in order to command that high a price they MUST be producing a LOT of revenue.

The people involved in such transactions that youve met - is that their main job? or are those typically "director of internet marketing" kind of people, part of whose job is evaluating & buying websites?

QUOTE(Michael Martinez @ Sep 8 2010, 07:12 AM)

There are certain companies that buy up affiliates in their competitive spaces.

There are some companies that buy up productive commercial sites in order to expand their reach and broaden their audience profiles.

This process has been going on for years and, from my perspective, is no less intense today than it was five years ago.

How much does it happen? I don't know, but I have heard about Website acquisitions every year for as long as I can remember.

Publicly traded companies are now scooping up Websites with proven commercial value...that has been going on for several years, at the very least. I personally know or have met some of the people involved in these transactions. The Websites typically sell for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, so keep in mind that in order to command that high a price they MUST be producing a LOT of revenue.

The people involved in such transactions that youve met - is that their main job? or are those typically "director of internet marketing" kind of people, part of whose job is evaluating & buying websites?

Some of them are "people of means". Some of them are hard-working people hoping to sell their sites to "people of means". Beyond that, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to say more.